rjwhite:

Gingrich/Moon 2012.

‘Snow White has to be out by Christmas—if not it’ll be too bad for Disney’s,” 20-year-old platinum blonde Reidun “Rae” Medby wrote her boyfriend from her Hollywood apartment late one night in the fall of 1937. She was barely able to keep her eyes open after a month of working weekends and double shifts in the Ink and Paint department, the all-female “finishing school” of hand-drawn animation, during the final push on the groundbreaking film. “The minute I get a pen in my hand my brain goes numb—just like it does at the studio. Don’t be upset if I start inking ducks and mice.”

Linking to the above, which I’m using in a little bitty part of the chapter I’m writing right now. It’s called “Coloring the Kingdom.” May be of particular interest to artists, ladies, and artist ladies.  Or not if you don’t like reading and school.

• Justin Bieber Is Obsessed With The 1996 Mark Wahlberg Film ‘fear’
  Before Mark Wahlberg was a movie star, he was a juvenile delinquent who beat old Vietnamese men with sticks and called them “slant-eyed gooks.” Somewhere in between those two things […]

If you cut “Justin Bieber” and added “Ever since this weekend, Erin Hill..” to the title of this article, it would still be accurate.

I’m wearing so many belts around my big jeans, you guys.  So much matte finish lipstick.  So many flowery dresses at miniskirt length. In my head, at least. It’s not like they sell that shit in stores anymore.

In honor of the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the story of the New York assemblyman who, in 1970, changed his vote from “no” to “yes,” breaking a tie and effectively legalizing abortion. My idea of real and true family values: when your family members (whether that means your parents, your wife or husband and children or the other people in your life who matter) challenge you to stand up for what you know is right, even if it costs you. Even if it costs them.  

From New York Said Yes and Stunned the Nation:

Franz S. Leichter: “We had the first vote [on March 30] and it was 73 for to 70 against. But we needed 76 votes, an absolute majority of the house, for it to pass. That certainly cast a pall and made us very apprehensive, but we agreed to table it and try to bring it up a second time [on April 9]… . People were really torn, as a matter of conscience and as a matter of politics. People who had voted yes the first time voted no, and people who had voted no the first time voted yes. I spent 30 years in the Legislature, and it was one of maybe 20 times that I saw a bill come to floor where you really just didn’t know what was going to happen.”

Midway through an agonizing roll call, Assemblyman George M. Michaels, a Democrat from a heavily Catholic, central New York district, quietly voted no.

The count ended at 74 to 74. One Assembly member was absent. Speaker Perry B. Duryea Jr., a Montauk Republican, did not vote, in keeping with the tradition that the speaker votes only if it affects the outcome.

Before the clerk could bring the vote to a close, Mr. Michaels stood and asked to be recognized. At first he rambled, his voice thick and trembling, and it was unclear where he was headed. But heads turned when he said his constituents would ”condemn me for what I am about to do.”

”One of my sons just called me a whore for the vote I cast against this,” Mr. Michaels said. Another son had told him, ”Dad, for God’s sake, don’t let your vote be the vote that defeats this bill.”

”I fully appreciate that this is the termination of my political career,” he said. ”But Mr. Speaker, I must have some peace in my family. And I therefore request you, Mr. Speaker, to change my negative vote to an affirmative vote.”

He crumpled into his seat and buried his face in his hands as bedlam swallowed the chamber. Someone screamed epithets at him. Mr. Blumenthal kissed his forehead.

Mr. Duryea cast the final ”aye” vote, making it 76 to 73. Voting yes were 46 Democrats and 30 Republicans. Voting no were 24 Democrats and 49 Republicans.

The next day, the Senate passed the Assembly version of the bill. The day after that, April 11, Mr. Rockefeller signed it into law. ”The wives of the Senate and the Assembly put this bill through,” he said.

In that year’s elections, Assemblyman Michaels, Senator Dominick and a handful of others who supported the bill lost to anti-abortion challengers. Mr. Brydges, who retired in 1972, died in 1975. Mr. Michaels died in 1992 at age 80.

New York Assembly debate on abortion, 1969-70

shitmystudentswrite:

American settlers also used guns and protected themselves and their family’s from Indian attacks, claim jumpers, and much more. If they had outlawed guns because Billy the Kid killed some people where would we be today? Still living on the west coast, ruled by England?

That is where I do am today, isn’t it? Is england not in charge? Who is that guy on the money?

So, The Artist. I saw this movie. I was excited to see this movie. I am a film history buff. I figured I’d enjoy it for the setting alone. 

Full Disclosure: I do kind of hate silent movies.  Much the same as I dislike going to live music unless it’s a band i’m really into. I like pictures with my sound, sound with my pictures. But I have seen enough silent film to know that the people who said filmmaking was an art that potentially lost something when movies started talking weren’t themselves talking out of their butts. You can’t watch something like The Crowd or The Last Laugh and not see that. 

But The Artist is just sort of ok.  It’s not The Passion of Joan of Arc, but then I’m not saying it has to rank among the top all time silents. It’s also not as good as, like, Four Sons, an old John Ford film I saw recently that nobody mentions as among his best or the best silents, or even much at all. Visually the artist is kind of sparse and minimalist for a silent movie…but not in a way that qualifies as a specific, interesting, beautiful or otherwise unique aesthetic. Again, I’m not an expert on Silent Films unless they’re about female movie workers, which they are pretty much not. But it’s not doing anything better than the oldies do it. And it’s not doing anything new. 

It does have cool performances. The actors are EXCELLENT mimics of silent film stars, both in the way they behaved on film, and the way they “performed” their personas in the public. But to me, these read as impressions, not original characters or performances inspired by a general love of old movies. The reason I think this is that the most exciting parts of the film are not only references, but almost direct copies of other films. The early stuff is straight out of Singin’ in the Rain (among others), still one of the best sound films about silents. If I’m not mistaken, for that cool part when the main character watches his old films and some of the amazing stunts he did in them, if I’m not mistaken, they’re actually using footage of Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro (Watch the last minute or so of the film -from 1:05:55— if you want to see one of the shots I’m talking about). Same with the Dog, who is clearly cast to look and behave exactly like the famousest of all movie dogs who didn’t have a tv or movie series, Skippy (From The Think Man and Topper Movies, as well as The Awful Truth and Bringing Up Baby). Yes, I get that these are tributes and that the characters are supposed to be composites of Fairbanks, Keaton, Bow and other silent stars. 

But other than mimicry of, nostalgia for and paying tribute to older movies and stars, for me, there’s nothing much going on here. Though it’s made for a contemporary audience, the plot feels as thin as those silent movies it seeks to recreate. Which seems unnecessary to complete the effect, and like a wasted opportunity. Because to make a silent film now? What an opportunity to really take that version of storytelling and moviemaking for a spin.Instead, I’m afraid I’m right and this is just a nicely made love letter. Which is fine. Except the critical response (much of which is positive but acknowledges the film as a novelty, a love letter, a wink, rather than an outstanding achievement in cinema) has led to awards show response, which has led to ad campaigns talking about how it’s an outstanding achievement in cinema that does move film art forward. Awards shows are bullshit, I know.  But it bothers me when something goes down in history as the opposite of what it is. 

So, are we giving highest honors to stuff that manages to look, sound and seem like an old movie, even if it doesn’t bring anything new to the form? Because if there’s nothing here but affection for old movies, I think it would be better to watch Wings or The Kid or Way Down East. Because they’re better silent movies. And most of them are practically as complex in terms of human emotions, which is saying something, since you can describe the plot, characters and emotional journeys of many in about 2 lines. They were simplistic because they were from a different time and speaking to a different audience and their understanding of characters, psychology, performance, society, the audience and what they could do with the medium was not as developed as ours is now. So why make a movie, even in tribute to these films, that doesn’t do what they would have done if they’d known how? Because this is more than a tribute. It’s mimicry. 

Here’s what I think is really happening: the people who are giving this movie awards are really giving themselves an award. That award is The Cool Filmgoer Award for Outstanding Achievement in Going to a Silent Movie, Watching the Whole Thing, and Enjoying or at Least Appreciating it.

Tell me what I’m missing.  I want to feel like I missed some kind of allegory and it’s not just nostalgia for an art form that most of the people in the audience have had little to no experience with in a theatre.  Also, go see The General or something. I am pretty sure that’s what The Artist is advocating. I don’t think it’s advocating that you never see The General because you already saw The Artist. But in this town that will be the most likely effect. Just like the existence of Casablanca as undisputed favorite all-time old movie makes a lot of network executives not watch any more old movies once they’ve seen it (I have heard the phrase, “Believe me, I love old movies. I’ve seen Casablanca” precede more conversations in which the speaker proceeded to shit on or dismiss pre-80’s movies than I care to count).  

What’s my point? Oh yeah: The Artist is a lovely tribute film, not a great movie. And if you’re going to not watch silent films, you shouldn’t not watch them because you’ve seen The Artist and thus have sampled the cream of the crop and know what they’re about.  You should not watch them because they are BO-RING!

Hey while I’m posting pictures from grade school, here is one from the year i forgot it was picture day/stopped being cute and chubby-faced. 

BUT LOOK AT THAT FUCKING CHARM NECKLACE!

I hope Erni sees this.

When I was 8, Ronald Reagan went to Reykjavik to summit with Gorbachev and it was the most important thing ever, because for those of you who aren’t old enough to remember the early 80’s, we were actually still really scared of the USSR back then.  Ivan Drago was only like half a joke. 

I was worried, because I’d voted for Mondale in the Kegonsa Elementary mock election and had no faith in Ronald Reagan, and my mother suggested I might feel better if i wrote him a letter telling him I didn’t agree with his politics, but wished him luck anyway. 

I did this. And then my friend Megan copied my idea and wrote an all-positive letter about how much she liked him, because her parents were Republicans.  Guess who got an autographed picture with her glowing reply which she showed to our 3rd grade class? Hint: Not the HONEST(EST) one.

Why i’m telling this story:

1) As always, to imply that I am cool and interesting.

2) To ask, what was my mother up to? Do you know who hated Ronald Reagan more than my mother? No, I’m really asking you. Do you know? Because I don’t. Other than maybe AIDS researchers and my grandpa.  Sure, 80’s nostalgia and the more recent, more blatant terribleness of Bushes I and II make people look back on him as this charming, elder statesman of the modern republican party, but if you cared about non-rich humans? Reagan? Sucked. And my mom hated him extra because his administration cut arts education and she lost her job as the cool art teacher at Stoughton High School as a direct result of it.  She’s a pretty good, nice person, but nice enough to give that kind of civics lesson despite kneejerk, anti-Reaganism?

I think she was using her daughter to tell the president (via his letter answerers) that even little kids could tell he was a schmuck and not to fuck it up and get us buried. Or else she’d have just had me throw a pot to take my mind off of it.

At least, I hope that’s what she was doing. Because it’s awesome.

Dear Mr. President,

I hate you but good luck because AMERICA!

Love,

Erin Hill

erniwalker:

you know what to do. (go to town, become mayor.)